A typical telecommunications network has a number of switching nodes interconnected by transmission trunks (bidirectional links) which carry the communication signals. While the physical length of each link will generally remain fixed, other operating parameters can vary. For instance, traffic on the network will vary with time and can readily affect operating costs, accessibility, and delay times encountered in any one link of the network. It is desirable, therefore, to dynamically select the shortest route (e.g., least cost, shortest time delay etc.) between any two nodes in the network, to optimize network usage.
The determination of the shortest route is described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/170,073 filed on Dec. 16, 1993 by the same applicant (now abandoned).